Susan B. Anthony was one of America’s greatest reformers, organizer for woman suffrage. One of her unique talents was her ability to unify women and motivate them to work relentlessly for a particular goal. She was able to develop strong teamwork which endured through numerous disappointments and downfalls. It has been suggested that she was gifted with an undaunted valor, fortitude and spirit of personal sacrifice which were essential in her singular work than in any other ever assumed (Harper 605). Susan B. Anthony will always be considered the commander-in-chief of the freedom of women because she dedicated her entire life to this cause. They were other women who began working with her and resigned. Most of the women did their best but their interests in family and social relations restricted their ability to work on the most difficult goals of the women’s movement. They devoted their time to working on reforms that they could formulate quickly. The freedom of women took precedence in her life over children and husband. The enfranchisement of women was her politics and her religion ( 605). The purpose of this paper is to discuss her numerous accomplishments.
Early Years
It is apparent that Susan B. Anthony was influenced by her father. The biographical literature indicates that she was born the second of eight children on February 15, 1820. Her father was a successful cotton-manufacturer and in 1826 he moved to Battenville, Washington County, New York, to form a partnership with Judge John McLean and expand his business ( 606). Her father was considered a liberal and progressive man. Although he belonged to the “Hicksite “ Friends he was known for disregarding their strict tenets; initially marrying outside the faith; wearing an overcoat with a cape and a colored handkerchief around his neck; and finally he was disowned for permitting young people to dance in his home(606). He was unwilling to changes his concepts of right and wrong and he still attended their meetings. This religion was treasured by him as well as his wife and daughter. Susan Anthony attributed to its inspiration her fervent belief in the equality of sexes, her hatred of slavery in any form, her tendency toward public
speaking and the final adoption of her career. Her father was a strong advocate of the education of women and their economic independence. He believed that providing his daughter with a good education would be conducive to financial independence. His assumption was correct; she was very successful in her career.
In 1837-8, the economic crisis led to the destruction of the cotton manufacturers and in 1845 the Anthony family moved to Rochester, New York, which became their home. She was quite successful in her career of teaching; she taught until she reached her thirtieth year. It was obvious that she wanted to attempt find a broader field. The average educated woman of that era would have considered her attempt to find another career an effort in futility. Miss Anthony had been trained as child that women had right had as much right to speak as men, She decided to become involved in temperance work.
Temperance
During this era temperance was a significant social issue. Liquor was abundant and inexpensive since the early days of the republic in the United States (Horner & Weisberg 15). In fact its manufacture and sale were not even controlled and excessive drinking was acceptable among all socioeconomic groups. The wives of alcoholic abusers asserted that drunkenness had become a very serious social problem. Dissimilar from modern women, the women during this period could not protect themselves. Everything belonged to their husband, assets, earnings and even their children (15). Husbands who were excessive drinkers could abuse their wives with any legal repercussions. As strange as it may sound domestic abuse was not considered a crime and alcoholism could not be used as a grounds for divorce. If a divorce was permitted it was presumed that the father would gain custody of the children.
In the 1830s the American temperance movement began; the primary purpose of this organization was to restrict or eradicate the consumption of alcohol (15). As early as 1849 it had become an effective and powerful political association with local reform societies operating throughout the country. The Sons of Temperance was one of the most active of these societies.
While women were the main victims of alcohol abuse they were not allowed to be an active participant in the Sons of Temperance or other reform organizations (15). In adherence to the culture of that era they were only allowed to join auxiliary groups such as the Daughters of Temperance but they could not vote speak at the men’s meetings. The male reformers maintained that a woman’s place was in the home, not in public life. Despite these strict rules and regulations some women attended the temperance association. It is not surprising that Susan B. Anthony joined since she was already interested in this particular social problem.
In 1849 at women’s temperance meeting in Canajohaire Miss Anthony made her initial public speech. The Daughters of Temperance wanted to interest the community in its work; therefore they invited as many as 200 men and women to a picnic supper. Following the meal Anthony began her speech. In her speech she mentioned that women had no power to eradicate these evil customs; Anthony that if they discontinued serving certain drinks at social gatherings would help their cause. Her speech was quite effective and she became an active participant in the temperance movement. It was during this period that she realized that she was a gifted leader. She began to organize fairs and suppers for the groups work (16). The colleagues of this group admired her abilities and they decided to elect her to represent them at a chief temperance convention to be conducted in Albany, New York, in early 1852, this would be a life changing event. This convention was supported by the Sons of Temperance which had invited the Daughters of Temperance to send delegates. The men never assumed that the women would actually participate in the actions of the association. When Miss Anthony spoke the men became enraged and insinuated that they women were there to learn and listen but not to speak.She and a few other women left the meeting and eventually held her temperance meeting.
As the years passed there was a men’s World Temperance Convention. The reformers called a Whole World’s Temperance Convention to emphasize the conceit of male temperance clergy who in claiming to represent the world actually omitted over half of it-women (Barry 75). A woman delegate was sent to the convention by the woman’s temperance organizations; Reverend Antoinette Brown as their delegate to the World’s Temperance convention (75). She was not accepted and the men were very hostile.
Eventually the men’s temperance group became compassionate benefactors who attempted to impose their own moralizing religiousness on others. The men were actually hypocrites since they had made efforts to restrict the activities of the women. The women temperance group exposed their sexist hypocrisy and attained control of the temperance movement (75).
Education of Women
Susan B. Anthony was very concerned about the education of women; she was very happy when she received an opportunity to speak on the topic of coeducation before the State Teachers’ Association. Miss Anthony was uncertain about her ability to write a speech so she requested assistance from her colleague and friend Elizabeth Stanton .She permitted Mrs. Stanton to read and review her topic.
At the teacher’s meeting in Troy, Susan indicated that intellectual sex-differences did not exist (Lutz 57). She maintained that women were presently successful in occupations which run the gamut from type setters, editors to machinists. Miss Anthony maintained that girls should receive enough education to earn a living; she also asserted that more occupations should be open to them in order to motivate them to study (57). She presented the same speech at the Massachusetts teacher convention and it was successful there also. Miss Anthony realized that making speeches was not as difficult as presenting a resolution to the New York State Teacher’s Association requesting all schools, colleges and universities to permit women to attend their schools. Miss Anthony presented her speech at the next convention. Although there were a sufficient number of women to ratify this resolution, the majority of them were opposed to it. In of listening to the benefits of coeducation they paid attention to the viewpoints of a group of conservative men who predicted that coeducation would erode the femininity of women and weaken marriage. In some instances she compared the status of Negroes ( an acceptable term in those days) to that of women. Miss Anthony was criticized for offering resolutions objecting the exclusion of Negroes from public schools, academies, colleges and universities (57).
Susan realized that the most effective method of exciting women and circulating new concepts was conducting women’s rights conventions since the discussions at these conventions pertained to numerous topics. The subject of restricted educational prospects for women was reflected. There were two coeducational colleges, Antioch and Oberlin they were presented as models for the future. In fact resolutions were passed requesting Yale and Harvard to accept women. They also discussed such issues as the low salaries of women and the limited number of occupations open to them. The suitability of women for such professions as ministry and
medicine were also discussed.
Abolitionist
Susan B. Anthony was strongly opposed to slavery and therefore she participated in many of the anti-slavery movements. She even struggled to open a free church in Rochester for a fervent discussion of opinions, and when John Brown’s raid failed on Harper’s Ferry and he was captured and sentenced to death, defended him beside the majority of inspirational New England (Barry 133). There was no doubt that Miss Anthony fully understood the abolitionist exploration of slavery.
History informs us that John Brown had intended to construct a private army to free slaves. In October 1859, he had assembled an adequate number of men to raid Harper’s Ferry (133). It was wrongly assumed by the proslavery men that the abolitionists were collaborating with blacks to support a revolution. They used this fabricated allegation to warrant more proslavery mob violence. This was conducive to the mobs following abolitionists workers every place they traveled to particularly if they honored John Brown (133). Susan went throughout the communities in Rochester to sell tickets for a meeting she was forming to honor John Brown. As history indicates he was hanged on December 2, 1859; as a result of this tragedy antislavery supporters grieved about his death in public meetings throughout the North. Miss Anthony assembled as many as three hundred people in Rochester to honor this murdered hero; she did not fear the antagonism she confronted. When Brown’s heroism increased the proslavery resentment deepened. His supporters assumed that the tragedy and the hostility might be conducive to the end of slavery. Susan continued to work for this cause as well as the freedom of women.
Property Rights
Susan B. Anthony believed that women should have the same rights as women; she made a relentless effort to attain this goal. In February 1860 she reached Albany for the State Woman’s Rights Convention to discover that the Judiciary Committee was on the verge of endorsing a radical bill for married women’s property rights (Barry 135). Anthony demanded that Mrs. Stanton to come to Albany as soon as possible in order to secure to obtain this bill. Within two
weeks Stanton arrived in New York and presented a strong argument for women’s rights before the State Legislature. After as many as five years of petition drives, state canvasses, and legislative hearings the bill was adopted by the state ( 136). Under this law, which would be a historical occurrence, women would have the right to own separate property, to carry on business in their own names, to enter contracts, to sue and be sued, and to be the joint guardian of their children ( 136). Sylvia Pankhurst, a very militant activist described their victory as “the first breach in the iniquitous institution ‘coverture’ (Pankhurst 48). It is unfortunate that she was correct. The 1860 conquests of American women were actually temporary. When the property rights were won for married women, the courts did not construe in a manner that benefitted women even into the twentieth century according to history).
Susan opened the Tenth National Woman’s Rights Convention in New York in May 1860 (Barry136 ). A sentiment of enthusiasm prevailed at the meeting. It was asserted that fora radical movement as sweeping victory such as winning a new right made other concerns more visible and explained the direction for the movement’s next struggle.
The next struggle entailed woman’s rights concerning divorce. It has been maintained by the historians that up until this victory woman’s rights advocates has worked with divorce only in the context of the temperance movement. It was obvious that they justified divorce and the proposal that women deny their husbands’ right to marital bed with the argument that wife abuse made it essential.
Later Stanton redefined marriage as a civil contract; she asserted that marriage should be compelled to adhere to the same restrictions and privileges as other contracts (Miller 137). In summary she indicated that if contract did not produce human happiness one should have the right to terminate it.
International Gathering of Women
Susan B. Anthony became interested in an international gathering of women after her trip to Europe in 1883. Stanton maintained the interest in this plan through her visits with her daughter in England and her son in France. Nevertheless, Susan continued an interest in this through the National Suffrage Association ; she requested a call for international conference in Washington,
in March 1888,to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the first woman’s rights convention (Lutz 181). It is believed that thousands of invitation were mailed out to organizations of women in every part of the world, to professional, business, and reform groups in addition to those supporting political and civil rights for women. Susan, Rachel Foster and May Wright Sewell were responsible for the majority of the conference work and the raising of $13,000 to finance it. Frances Willard, an individual who possessed nation-wide contracts motivated interest among numerous women’s organizations and labor groups (Lutz 181).
This was an extraordinary gathering that included women from all over the world; the group assembled in Albaugh’s Opera house in Washington for this international conference that opened on Sunday, March 25, 1888(Lutz 181). This meeting also included religious services that were conducted exclusively by women. Miss Anthony was in charge of this gathering; she recalled that in 1854 she and Ernestine Rose had conducted their initial woman’s rights meetings in Washington. The initial meetings were attended by only a small number of women. It was evident that thirty-four years had made significant difference. It was amazing that women were not willing to travel from as far as Asia to converse and petition for equal educational benefits, equal opportunities for training in the professions and in business, equal pay for equal work, equal suffrage, and the same standard of morals for all according to the history scholars.
Susan was praised by one of the local newspapers as the woman suffragists loved because her work was outstanding. Miss Anthony was recognized as an individual who had the ability to make her words the parliamentary law of the meeting (Harper 657).
It was agreed that a permanent International Conference of Women would meet once every five years; it was organized with Millicent Garrett Fawcett of England as president ( Lutz 181). The historical literature indicates that a National Council would be required to meet every three years; it was established an affiliate with Francs Willard as president and Susan as vice-president at large. This organization would place emphasis on education and social and moral restructuring.
Voting
Throughout the years Susan Anthony made an unyielding effort to attain voting rights for women. History informs us that she spent years campaigning for woman suffrage. It was known that women were prohibited by law to vote in New York or any other state (Horner & Weisberg 4). Despite this law the fearless Miss Anthony cast her first ballot on November 5, 1872 (5). She wrote a letter to Stanton informing her that she had voted. Less than two weeks later, Marshal Kenney appeared at her home with his arrest warrant. The court hearing was conducted in a small courtroom that in earlier years had been used for the trials of runaway slaves. Following her indictment a trial date for the following spring was set. The indictment maintained that as a woman she had knowingly, wrongfully and unlawfully voted contrary to the form of the statute and against the peace of the United States (5).
In referring to the case Anthony questioned as to whether or not personal freedom and personal representation are inherent rights and privileges. She then questioned as to whether or not they could be given and taken by the ruling class or a majority vote. Miss Anthony implied that if the former were true our country is free; if the latter; then our country is despotism and women are the victims (6).
Miss Anthony was definitely a “singular feminist”; after being released on bail she continued to proceed with speaking engagements and meetings. Many women would have been too downhearted and too embarrassed to conduct any type of business. She noticed that Marshal Kenney was at the Rochester train station as she prepared to leave in January (6). Although he never made an attempt to block her travel plans Kenney was always at the train station when she was leaving.
Susan continued to lecture throughout the country about women’s rights and her ordeal; she appeared in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and even in some urban areas such as New York. She did not fail to discuss the primary legal points of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments that she asserted warranted her right to vote (6).
One of more interesting statements indicated that the Constitution maintained “it was we, the people, not we, the white male citizens, nor yet we the male citizens but we the whole people, who formed this “Union, (6).” She also maintained that these liberties were for everyone women and men. Miss Anthony was never imprisoned; they demanded that she pay a fine of $100.00. The historians claimed never paid this and her case was dropped.
It is apparent that Susan B. Anthony was great leader, suffragist, reformer and organizer.
Works Cited
Barry,Kathleen.Susan B, Anthony: A Biography of a Singular Feminist. New York: New York University, 1988. Print.
Harper,Ida. History of WomenSuffrage.Vol V and VI New York,1922. Print.
------------. “Susan B. Anthony: The Woman and Her Work.” The North American Review
162 (1906): 604-616. Print.
Horner, Matina S, and Barbara Weisberg. Susan B. Anthony. New York: Chelsea,1988. Print.
Lutz,Alma. Susan B. Anthony,Rebel,Crusader. Washington,DC; Zenger Publishing, 1958. Print.
Parkhurst,Sylvia.The Suffrage Movement. London: Vitalgo, 1977. Print.
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